It was only when I visited Costa Rica that I realized what a machete was. We call it 'catana' and I thought the name came from the former Portuguese colonies in Africa, but the Japanese call it 'katana', so which came first? The egg or the hen? :-) By the way, do you know the Japanese word for thank you, 'harigato', comes from the Portuguese 'obrigado'? Funny, isn't it? :-) Actually it's not that strange as the Portuguese reached Japan in 1543.